This invention relates to column and beam frame system, and in particular to a novel structural interconnect organization—specifically a collar-form nodal connection between a beam and a column—involving the quick setting, into full-moment-capability, of correctly design-positioned columns and beams. In one form of the invention set forth herein, a form which is useful in applications where tightened nut-and-bolt incorporation within a nodal connection is not needed, or optional, the invention proposes what is referred to as a floating, nondestructably disconnectable, discontinuous, full-moment nodal connection between the end of a beam and the side of a column. In another form of the invention, and one which is especially focused upon in this continuation application, the connection of the invention features orthogonally adjacent, collar-forming structural elements, referred to as beam-mount components, that are (a) disposed orthogonally with respect to one another, collaboratively circumsurrounding the outside of a column in a cooperative, collar-form arrangement, and (b), inclusive of adjacent lateral sides near the corners of a column, defined with parallel, planar, load-compression faces, also referred to herein as corner facets, which face toward one another, and which play important roles within an overall nodal connection, along with collaborating, tightened nut-and-bolt assemblies, in promoting column-circumsurrounding load delivery from a beam to a column.
The invention description presented herein, characterized, as it is, correctly, as forming a continuation from the above-identified ‘808, immediate-predecessor, patent application, includes substantially and directly all of the specification text included in that predecessor case, along with the incorporation of appropriate text augmentation that has been included in order to identify clearly a feature of the invention subject matter, which, while contained definitively in the predecessor case, is now featured and focused upon in the context of the claims presented in the present application.
A preferred, overall form of the invention is described herein principally with reference to a unique, bearing-face collar-interconnect structure which joins adjacent columns (the sides thereof) and beams (the ends thereof) at nodes of intersection between them in a manner whereby, when a column and a beam are brought, through gravity lowering of a beam into place, into correct, design-intended, relative positions, they become instantly gravity-set substantially against further relative motion unless disassembled, and instantly stabilized in correct, full-moment and positional relationship with respect to one another.
This condition of immediately gravity-set nodal connection defines the above-described, floating, nondestructably disconnectable, discontinuous, full-moment nodal connection between the end of a beam and the side of a column. No additional hardware is required to establish this character of connection, and specifically no hardware of a nature which extends (flows) between, and bridges with continuity, the interfacial discontinuity which exists between a so-connected column and beam is needed just to establish a basic, full-moment relationship in the connection. The nodal, collar-interconnect structure employed to create such a discontinuity connection includes, as do all connections described herein, what are referred to as column-mount and beam-mount node structures, also referred to herein as collar structures, that are joined to the sides of columns, and to the ends of beams, respectively.
Regarding the herein especially highlighted, and discussed, unique feature of the invention, mentioned above, respecting circumsurrounding delivery of loads from a beam to a column, appropriately tightened nut-and-bolt assemblies are, beyond what is described above as the basic “discontinuity” column-to-beam relationship, additionally employed so that the gravity-set full-moment connection which becomes gravity-established between each connected beam and a column, as just described above, becomes circumsurroundingly developed all around the outside of that column in relation to each associated, individual column/beam connection. In this context, one can view the invention as proposing a collar-form, nodal connection between the end of a beam and the outside of an elongate, orthogonal-cross-section column, with this connection featuring                (a) column-mount node structure, including column-mount components, joined to and distributed around the outside of the column at a defined location along its length,        (b) collar-form beam-mount node structure gravity-seated on the column-mount structure in a manner forming therewith a full-moment connection between the column and the beam, including orthogonally adjacent, cooperatively interactive, beam-mount components, one for each of the column's sides, each extending within a plane disposed adjacent a column side, and collectively circumsurrounding the column outwardly adjacent the column-mount node structure, one of the beam-mount components being associated with, and joined to, the mentioned beam end, and adjacent beam-mount components possessing adjacent lateral sides including substantially parallel, planar, load-compression faces, or corner facets, that lie in planes which are disposed at angles of substantially 45-degrees relative to the respective planes in which their respective, associated beam-mount components lie, and        (c) for each pair of adjacent beam-mount-component lateral sides, operatively connected nut-and-bolt structure extending adjacent these sides through the associated beam-mount components, appropriately tightened within the overall nodal connection to produce compression in the load-compression faces which is effective within the connection to promote column-circumsurrounding load delivery from the associated beam, through its joined beam-mount component, to the column.        
Continuing with a generalized discussion, as mentioned, the invention proposes a column-beam quick-set interconnect structural system wherein the ends of beams are joined to columns at the mentioned nodes of intersection through collar-form structures, spoken of above, that, when in completed collar form, circumsurround the sides and the long axes of columns, to deliver, through confronting column-mount and beam-mount, node-structure bearing faces, compressive, “mount-to-mount” loads which are derived from moment loads experienced by the beams. These collar-form structures are configured individually in such a manner that, as the end of a prepared beam approaches its correct, design-intended position relative to a column, the collar structures both (a) guide these two components toward that correct relative disposition, and (b) instantly gravity-set and stabilize these components exactly as they arrive at that position. Not only does this very special action occur in accordance with the invention, so also occurs the then instant gravity-set-and-stabilized establishment of a basic full-moment interconnection between the subject column and beam. A full collar form is not necessary for the establishment of a full-moment connection to become established between a side of a column and an end of an individual beam, and thus between the relevant column and beam, per se.
As will be seen, the invention is intended for use in conjunction with upright tubular columns, each of a character having plural sides preferably distributed equiangularly and orthogonally around, and in common spaced relations relative to, the associated column's long axis.
The interconnect structure of the invention uniquely is designed for fully compatible use between a beam and a column on any and every side of such a column. No matter which column side is involved, essentially exactly the same-character, full-moment, column-beam interconnection develops with it and a connected end of an associated beam. In other words, the invention is designed so that every full-moment connection created by it on each and every side of a column is always functionally the same. This feature of the invention can be visualized, therefore, as offering a kind of “omni-directional” functional symmetry relative to the long axis of a column. This symmetry concept will be more fully explained herein as the description of a preferred form of the invention unfolds below.
One other point should be mentioned here before advancing to a fuller discussion of the preferred collar-form of column-beam interconnection. It is this. Immediate same-invention predecessor structures of mine did not necessarily invoke the collar-form connection approach. They did, however, embody what I think of as being a “drop-and-set” principle of full-moment interconnection, i.e., the principle of gravity-set connection mentioned above, as well as the principle just referred to above as omni-directional functional symmetry. Drawing FIGS. 11-13, inclusive, herein illustrate interconnect components in three different ones of these predecessor versions of the invention.
Returning now to the discussion involving a collar-form interconnection, the delivery through compression of moment loads carried from beams to columns involves the development in the columns of vertically offset reverse-direction compression loads which create related moments in the columns. With respect to each and every lateral load that is experienced by a building frame, or disassemblable frame structure constructed in accordance with the invention, all lateral loads are essentially equally shared by all of the columns, and a consequence of this is that, in comparison to building frame structures built conventionally, a building frame structure constructed in accordance with this invention prevents any single column from carrying any more load than is carried by any other column. As will become apparent, this important feature of the invention, as it performs, enables a building or other frame structure to be constructed in such a way as to exceed minimum building code requirements in many instances, and thus open the opportunity for using a building frame, etc. in accordance with this invention in settings where conventional frame structure would not meet code requirements.
The nodal connections which result from practice of the preferred form of the present invention function to create, when the mentioned nut-and-bolt assemblies are in place and tightened appropriately relative to the column-mount and beam-mount nodal components to draw the mentioned load-compression faces in them toward one another, what is referred to as three-dimensional, multi-axial, moment-coupling, load transfer interconnections and interactions between beams and columns.
Focusing on the specific load-delivery interaction which occurs between a given single column and a connected single beam that bears a moment load, this load is coupled compressively into the column by the associated, single, nodal collar structure at plural bearing-face regions which are angularly spaced about the column's long axis. Compressive load-transfer coupling is not constrained to just one plane of action, or to just one localized region of load delivery. Compression couplets are created to take fuller advantage of columns’ load-handling capabilities.
The illustrative and preferably proposed nodal collar structures include inner components—column-mount node structures—which are anchored, as by welding, to the outside surfaces of columns, and an outer collar which is made up of components—beam-mount node structures—that are suitably anchored, also as by welding, to the opposite ends of beams. The inner and outer collar components are preferably and desirably formed by precision casting and/or machining, and are also preferably pre-joined to columns and beams in an automated, factory-type setting, rather than out on the construction job site. Accordingly, the invented collar components lend themselves to economical, high-precision manufacture and assembly with columns and beams, which can then be delivered to a job site ready for accurate assembly.
Importantly, and as was mentioned above herein respecting circumsurrounding load delivery which occurs around the outside of a column according to the invention, the beam-mount components (node structures) in the inner collar, with respect to pairs of orthogonally adjacent such components, possess adjacent lateral sides which include substantially parallel, planar, load-compression faces that lie in planes which are disposed at angles of substantially 45-degrees relative to the respective planes in which their respective, associated beam-mount components lie.
As will become apparent from an understanding of the respective geometries proposed by the present invention for the collar components, these components play a significant role during early building-frame assembly, as well as later in the ultimate performance of a building.
At the regions of connection between beams and columns, and with respect to pairs of adjacent columns standing upright approximately correctly (vertically) in space on a job site, as beams are lowered into horizontal positions, the outer collar components that they carry at their opposite ends seat under the influence of gravity through special, angular, bearing-face geometry provided in them and in the confronting inner column components. This bearing-face geometry effectively guides and collects a lowered beam, and the associated two columns, into stabilized, gravity-locked conditions, with these now-associated beam and column elements then essentially correctly aligned and positioned in space relative to one another. Male/female cleat/socket configurations formed in and adjacent the confronting bearing-face portions of the inner and outer collar components function under the influence of gravity, during such preliminary building construction, not only to enable such gravity locking and positioning of the associated frame components, but also to establish immediate, full-moment stability, even without further assembly (hardware introduction) taking place at the nodal locations of column-beam intersections.
Following preliminary frame assembly, appropriate tension bolts are introduced into the collar structures, and specifically into the components of the outer collar structures, effectively to lock the inner and outer collar structures in place against separation, and to introduce, through internal tension, circumsurrounding load-bearing conditions of local compression into the angular, load-compression faces in the lateral sides of the outer collar structures, i.e., in the beam-mount structures. As mentioned, such tension load bearing action plays an important role in the way that the structure of the present invention gathers and couples beam moment loads multidirectionally into columns, but is not a contributor to the basic establishment of column/beam, gravity-set moment connections.
Confronting faces between the inner and outer collar components function as bearing faces to deliver, or transfer, moment loads (carried in beams) directly as compression loads into the columns. In particular, these bearing faces deliver such compression loads to the columns at plural locations which are angularly displaced about the long axes of the columns (because of the axial encircling natures of the collars). Such load distribution takes substantially full advantage of the load-carrying capabilities of the columns with respect to reacting to beam moment loads.
Accordingly, a building frame structure assembled in accordance with this invention results in a quickly assembleable, remarkably stable and capable frame, wherein all lateral loads transfer via compression multiaxially, and at distributed nodes, into the columns, and are born in a substantially relatively evenly and uniformly distributed fashion throughout the entire frame structure. The full-moment nodal interconnections, or connections, which exist according to this invention between beams and columns through the beam-mount and column-mount structures are, as can be seen clearly in the drawings, contactive, compound-angle, confronting, planar-bearing-face engagements. Such a frame structure requires no bracing or shear walls, and readily accommodates the later incorporation (into an emerging building) of both outer surface skin structure, and internal floor structure.
These, and various other, features and advantages which are offered by this invention will become more fully apparent as the description that now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.